A Venomous Fray
Greed and Layla were busy conversing with Zero as they stood waiting for their guild master's announcement. They were tasked with standing by the door to make sure that all the family members who have come to hear the announcement made it inside the guild so that they could notify their master when to address the crowd. "I wonder what the announcement is going to be?" Greed asks, as he casually glances out the door to see if anyone else was coming. "I heard that Lady Inari was going to tell us how she was going to use the money we won from the Grand Magic Games." Layla says as she directs someone towards the center of the guild hall. "Yeah, I am super excited to see what we are going to do with it. We all worked so hard for it too!" Zero exclaims, still a little sore from his time in the Grand Magic Games last week. He glances through the window of the door and says, "Well I think that's everyone. I'll go tell Lady Inari that she can make the announcement now" Zero then leaves Greed and Layla to go walk up to the upper deck in the guild hall. "Well regardless of what it is, I'm sure it will be cool!" Greed says, as he rocks back and forth on his feet. "Hey Layla, I was wondering if you wanted to go grab some ice cream in town afterwards? As kind of an "extra celebration" for winning the GMG's." Greed laughs out. Placing a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek, Layla replies, "Of course, that sounds like a wonderf--" Before she could even finish her sentence a loud crash was heard through out the guild, as the walls started shaking. A mere second of silence was followed by another loud crash and shaking. Greed and Layla, being closest to the door turn to see what the cause of this disturbance was, but glance to see that the front door of the guild hall was being melted down as if it was ice cream on a hot summers day. Multiple figures step inside and scatter everywhere, and before Greed or Layla had time to react, they hear their guild master yelling to get all family members to the lower levels. Finally registering who these mages are, dark wizards from the guild Shattered Dusk, Greed and Layla know that they need to buy some time to help give the family members time to go into shelter. Greed uses his Wind Magic to create a giant cyclone that slows the entrance of some of the Shattered Dusk mages. He sees a figure making its way towards both Greed and Layla from in the dust. Taking quick action, Greed uses his Alloy Illumina bracelet to shoot off four metal spikes towards the target. Wondering if they made contact, Greed waits until the dust has settled. He then sees that his spikes lay corroded and destroyed on the ground as a blonde haired women in black Victorian clothing approaches them. "Silly boy, you think those puny needles would be all it took to stop me? Well surely you'd be mistaken." The women takes one step closer to the two Koma Inu mages, gazing into their eyes with an evil grin plastered on her face. "Well I feel it's only fair that you should know the name of who is about to kill you. The beautiful goddess you see before you is named Maria Picantez. The last person you'll ever meet." She does a slight curtsy, and then leans back to shoot a large wave of acid towards the pair. Seeing the two mages get covered in acid as the substance begins to corrode their flesh sends Maria into a maniacal laughing fit. The dark mage is caught off guard when she is knocked across the room by a wind covered fist. Regaining her bearings, Maria looks over to see that Greed and Layla are standing there with fists clenched and Layla's bow and arrow pointed directly at her. "What?! How could this be?! I covered you in my Acid Wave, you should be a pile of dust by now!" Maria spouts. "You should be more careful next time. The moment you looked into my eyes earlier, I put you under an illusion. So Acid Magic is your specialty, correct? I guess I will just have to make sure I avoid it all all costs then." Layla says calmly, her arrow quivering in her bow, aching to be released. Before Maria has time to get up off the floor, Layla fires three wind arrows at her causing Maria to shift to the left to dodge them. Greed then uses his wind magic to deliver a blast of wind and shoot the Acid mage up into the air. Layla then uses the magical energy around her in the guild and shoots a black flamed arrow at Maria's chest; borrowing from the magical energy given off by Zero close by. It looks like the arrow hit, but Illusio Ventus can't see through the dust of Maria landing back on the ground. Greed sees Maria start to stir and rushes towards her. "Steel Make: Sword." Greed shouts, and quickly produces a long sword that he slashes at the fallen dark mage. Hearing a slight snicker Greed jumps back and sees that his sword is started to be eaten away by acid. He quickly tosses it aside and prepares himself for what's to come. "You have a cute face boy, it's a shame I am going to have to ruin it. I told you, your little tricks won't work on me! Neither will your silly arrows wench!" Maria laughs out, and throws the disintegrated remains of Layla's previous black arrow. "Acid Make: Acrid Bullets!" Maria shouts and shoots off multiple tiny bullets from her finger tips. Greed quickly pulls up an Air Shield, but a few stray bullets manage to penetrate the shield and hit Layla in the leg. "Oh now, Layla! Are you ok?!" Greed shouts; a fierce anger building up inside him. "I'm fine Greed, don't worry." Layla says, wincing in pain. "Listen, I need you to distract her for a minute, I think I understand why we can't touch her. Try and land a physical attack, but be careful to avoid her acid." Nodding his head, Greed turns his gaze towards the grinning blonde. "You're going to pay for hurting her." Greed says, as the metal bands around his wrist elongate to cover his fists in a thick sheet of steel. Swirls of wind form around his steel fists as he charges towards Maria. "Oh how pathetic, your silly love isn't real! It won't be long before he leaves for another girl!" Maria says, looking Layla writhing in pain as the acid attacks her leg. "But don't worry, I'll save you the trouble wench, and dispose of this boy right now! Acid Make: Acrid Geysers!" Suddenly streams of acid erupt from the ground near Greed's feet. Using a gust of wind, Greed is able to leap up into the air to avoid getting hit. Upon his decent, he cocks his fist to deliver a fearsome blow to Maria's cheek. Although he can see that she has taken the hit, by the way her head jerks to the side, Greed can feel the metal around his hand begin to disappear. He quickly discards it before the acid is able to touch his skin. "You know you pack a mean punch." Maria says, as she fixes the lipstick that happened to smear from the hit."Funny thing is though, your silly attacks can't touch me! I''ll share my secret with you; think of it as a last gift for you. My magic is able to be molded into a highly corrosive acid that can cut through almost anything it touches. Luckily for me, my body exudes magical energy through the pores in my skin, thus making it possible to create a thin layer of acid all across my body. It makes for an excellent moisturizer, I must say." She laughs out and sets her sights back on the wind mage. "Now, where were we." Exactly what I thought, she is covering herself in her own magical energy! ''Layla thinks to herself, still consumed by the pain in her leg. ''Now that I know it's magical energy she is using, I have the perfect plan. ''Grabbing her bow by her side, she gathers the magical energy that is coursing through her leg and creates an acid arrow that she fires directly at Maria. Finally feeling some relief that the acid from her leg is gone, she slowly stands and faces Maria. "You know Maria, I feel it's only fair that I return your gift with one of my own. I will share my little secret with you." Layla holds her bow and magical energy can be seen forming into an arrow against the string. "The way my magic works is I can use the magical energy prevalent around me to form different types of arrows. This magic can come from the ethernano that people naturally exude into the air, and I simple take the expressed magic and mold it into a compressed form." Layla quickly fires off five acid arrows in succession. "Now since your little ''moisturizer is magic that you exude into the air, this magic is free for me to take." Layla snarks and fires off ten more acidic arrows towards Maria. Skillfully dodging the first five, Maria's smirk had been replaced with one of anger after hearing Layla's statement. The next ten arrows were much harder to dodge, and Maria managed to get grazed by a few of them. As Layla continued to fire off acid arrows, Maria could feel her acid magic coat slowly disappear. Feeling very vulnerable now, Maria fires off Acrid Bullets to try and stop the barrage of arrows coming towards her. This proves futile as the acid bullets couldn't corrode something of the same substance, and only resulted in Layla's arrows being coated with a thin layer of Maria's own acid. Being unable to dodge the remaining arrows that are being fired, Maria finds herself pinned up to the wall behind her. Skin pierced with arrows made from her own magic. She tries to break free, but finds that her attempts are futile. "Greed now!" Layla shouts, out of breath from all the magic energy she used to make all the arrows. Greed immediately charges straight for Maria, who is trapped against the wall. He thrusts out his fist towards her chest and yells "Point Blank!" A huge burst of wind hits Maria from all sides, crushing her body and her will to fight. Falling limp against the wall Maria looses consciousness and is left crucified. Greed rushes to Layla's side, who has collapsed from overexerting her magic energy. Glancing around he see's that other are busy wrapping up their fights, and quickly puts Layla on his back to find them some cover while the battle winds down.